Table Of ContentPALGRAVE STUDIES ON LEADERSHIP
AND LEARNING IN TEACHER EDUCATION
SERIES EDITORS: MARIA ASSUNÇÃO FLORES · THUWAYBA AL BARWANI
Knowledge
Communities in
Teacher Education
Sustaining Collaborative Work
Cheryl J. Craig · Gayle A. Curtis ·
Michaelann Kelley · P. Tim Martindell ·
M. Michael Pérez
Palgrave Studies on Leadership and Learning
in Teacher Education
Series Editors
Maria Assunção Flores
Institute of Education
University of Minho
Braga, Portugal
Thuwayba Al Barwani
College of Education
Sultan Qaboos University
Al Khod, Muscat, Oman
The series focuses on original and research informed writing related to
teachers and leaders’ work as it addresses teacher education in the 21st
century. The editors of this series adopt a more comprehensive defini-
tion of Teacher Education to include pre-service, induction and contin-
uingprofessionaldevelopmentofthe teacher.Thecontributionswilldeal
with the challenges and opportunities of learning and leading in teacher
education in a globalized era. It includes the dimensions of practice,
policy, research and university school partnership. The distinctiveness of
this book series lies in the comprehensive and interconnected ways in
which learning and leading in teacher education are understood. In the
faceofglobalchallengesandlocalcontextsitisimportanttoaddresslead-
ership and learning in teacher education as it relates to different levels of
education as well as opportunities for teacher candidates, teacher educa-
tors education leaders and other stakeholders to learn and develop. The
book series draws upon a wide range of methodological approaches and
epistemological stances and covers topics including teacher education,
professionalism, leadership and teacher identity.
More information about this series at
http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/16190
· ·
Cheryl J. Craig Gayle A. Curtis
· ·
Michaelann Kelley P. Tim Martindell
M. Michael Pérez
Knowledge
Communities
in Teacher Education
Sustaining Collaborative Work
Cheryl J. Craig Gayle A. Curtis
Department of Teaching, Learning, Department of Teaching, Learning,
and Culture and Culture
Texas A&M University Texas A&M University
College Station, TX, USA College Station, TX, USA
Michaelann Kelley P. Tim Martindell
Mount St. Joseph University Department of Urban Education
Cincinnati, OH, USA University of Houston - Downtown
Houston, TX, USA
M. Michael Pérez
Houston Independent School District
Houston, TX, USA
ISSN 2524-7069 ISSN 2524-7077 (electronic)
Palgrave Studies on Leadership and Learning in Teacher Education
ISBN 978-3-030-54669-4 ISBN 978-3-030-54670-0 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54670-0
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Foreword
The Invaluable Scholarly Contribution
of an Account of a 20-year-long Collaboration:
The Value of the Work of the Portfolio Group
In reading Knowledge Communities in Teacher Education: Sustaining
Collaborative Work, we were reminded of one of our own passages:
Aswemoveforwardinbecomingateachereducator[andteacher]working
in the midst of experience and practice, we learn and grow. We shift in
our understanding, experience tensions, resolve problems, develop rela-
tionships, and learn about being a teacher educator. We stand in the
perfect place to reveal, act on, and expand our knowledge about teaching,
teacher education, and being a [teacher or] teacher educator. (Hamilton
and Pinnegar 2015, p. 39)
Muchofwhatwebelieveaboutteacherdevelopment,growth,andchange
as a teacher and teacher educator is captured in this quote and in this
volume.Indeedthepowerofthisbook,forus,isthatitprovidesclearand
strong evidence of the things that led the Arizona Group (e.g., 1996) to
embrace and pursue self-study of practice (or self-study of teacher educa-
tion practice, S-STEP) methodology to develop scholarship on teaching
and teacher education. Early on in the teacher research movement, a
v
vi FOREWORD
group of scholars argued that the voice of teachers was ventriloquized
by university scholars and thus the potential contribution of teachers to
research on teaching and teacher education was either silenced or absent
fromthediscourse.Clandinin(1985)introducedtheconceptofpersonal
practical knowledge as the knowledge teachers acted on in their teaching
and curriculum making. Bullough and Gitlin (2001) provided method-
ological tools that could be used to document and promote the devel-
oping knowledge of beginning teachers as a potential contribution to
research on beginning teacher development. Cochran-Smith and Lytle’s
(1993),Inside-out:Teacherresearchandknowledge arguedfortheneedfor
the contributions of teachers and provided tools that could help teachers
in making such contributions. Clandinin and her colleagues (1993)
provided clear evidence that narrative inquiry conducted by teachers and
teacher educators could document the growth of teacher and teacher
educatorknowledgeinanalternativeteachereducationprogramthattook
experience and practical knowledge as the site for teacher growth. Olson
and Craig (2001), working from a teacher knowledge orientation, added
key terms for understanding teacher knowledge with ideas like secret
stories and cover stories. My colleagues (see Arizona Group et al. 1996)
provided an understanding of the shift from teacher to teacher educator.
Theportfolioandteacherreflectionmovementasrepresentedbyscholars
suchasNonaLyons(1998)emergedaboutthistimeaswellandprovided
guidancethatcouldsharpenteacherskillsindevelopingasresearchersand
contributingtotheconversationinresearchonteaching.Sincetheseearly
days, while teachers have contributed studies of their knowledge, it has
often been rough sledding since the primary task of teachers is teaching
and promoting the learning and development of their own students.
This work bridges the time from those early days of teacher research
and the potential of teacher research in this day and time. In doing so, it
makes important contributions to research on teacher tools for capturing
teacherknowledgeandidentityformation,trackingteacherdevelopment,
documenting the success of reform efforts, the value and mechanisms of
teacher, teacher educator, and school leadership collaborations (and how
such work can lead to systemic change and personal growth), the power
of knowledge communities, and the power of teacher-led professional
development.
In this book, we are introduced to a group of teachers who came
together amid a Texas educational reform movement and formed the
Portfolio Group. In an unprecedented move, they continued to work
FOREWORD vii
together and support each other in learning, school change, and profes-
sional growth. They did this through their collaborative and individual
scholarship, their commitment to conducting and to publishing research,
and their obligations to promoting growth and change in themselves,
schools, and each other. Their collaborative continues to thrive even
after 20 years and the participants continue to contribute to research on
teaching and teacher education. However, endurance and commitment
are not the only contributions of this book. The major contribution of
the volume is its straightforward articulation of the path of the collabo-
rative and the tools, techniques, and accounts of experience that provide
insight and wisdom about how other educational research collaborations
could thrive in the midst of the business of the lives of educators, the
politicalrealities,andthechallengesinpersonallives.Indeed,thisbookis
both a practical and theoretical work. It provides practical tools based in
theoretical concepts that others could embrace in ways that could lead to
other efforts.
The book explains and articulates several tools and techniques for
reflectionandresearchthatcanbeutilizedtopromote,study,andproduce
professionalgrowthandschoolchange.Thesetoolsincluderegularpublic
reflectioninasafeandnurturingenvironment.Theparticipantsarehonest
andunderstandingaboutthefactthatwhileacoregrouphascontributed
across the years, they have allowed for the ebb and flow of lives (retire-
ment, moving, embrace of new challenges) that led members to join,
contribute, and leave (and sometimes return). They provide clear guid-
ance and evidence for the power and use of portfolios to document,
record, and study the learning and growth of teachers, the learning
of students, and the evolution of educational systems. They demon-
strate how research methods and methodologies such as traveling jour-
nals, regular dialogue (Hamilton and Pinnegar 2015; Bakhtin 1981),
reflection (see Lyons 2010) narrative inquiry (Clandinin and Connelly
2000),criticalfriendsprotocols(seehttps://nsrfharmony.org/faq-items/
cfgvsplc/), and self-study of practice (Pinnegar and Hamilton 2009) can
be supported and executed. They use these tools to create accounts that
capture the ways in which their growth as teachers is promoted as they
use these vehicles to study their work as educators. These tools enable
them to stand in the zone of maximal contact of space where their past,
present, and orientation to future experiences are brought together and
result in shifts in their thinking and actions.
viii FOREWORD
All the research processes, practices, techniques, methodologies, and
tools are utilized to capture the particular. This is important because
rather than seeking generalizability, these accounts provide a secure base
fortransferabilityandapplicability.Theyelucidatethewaysinwhichwe,as
humans, can read narratives and studies of particular experiences located
in particular places and then apply these adjusting them to our own
settings and practices. These tools and the accounts of their practical use
provide an exemplar for Putnam (2004) who claimed that generalizable
research studies have not been able to truly address the intractable prob-
lemsofeducation.Insteadheargues(andasthePortfolioGroup’sstudies
provide clear evidence), our best strategy is to provide strong studies of
the particular that others can read carefully and adjust and apply in their
own settings—learning from both the success and sometimes failure of
others.
Another important contribution of this book emerges from the work
that initially brought the group together—their engagement with and
evaluation by a reform effort in Houston, Texas schools. The technique
they employed was the use of portfolios to document the impact of the
reform efforts in a group of Houston schools. These educators recog-
nizedthattheircommitmenttodevelopingschoolsthatmettheneedsof
studentsandresulted,notinchangedtestscoresperse,butinpromoting
the increasing likelihood that the students in challenging schools would
not just survive but thrive and more likely reach their potential. Like the
PerryPreschoolstudyfocusedonthepracticaleffectsofstrongpreschools
on the lives of children (see Heckman and Karapakula 2019), test scores
or usual evaluation documentation would not adequately or accurately
captureeithertheprocessesofreformintheseschoolsortheactualimpact
of them. This book provides evidence that schools that seek to employ
and execute practical reform efforts targeted at the whole person need
to utilize evaluation that documents the growth and change in schools,
students, and teachers. Thus, this book provides explanations, guidance,
and links to other resources that can support teachers and educators in
such efforts.
Often, professional development literature, even the studies that
promote the use of teacher research methodologies reported here, argue
that these efforts must be orchestrated and led by university scholars in
ordertohaverigorandbeexecutedproperly.WhileCherylCraigisclearly
central in this work, her role seems to be an educative one—educative
for the participants but also to promote her own learning and growth.
FOREWORD ix
She participates as a contributing and equal member of this community.
The evidence is that all of the Portfolio Group members contributed
to, shaped, valued, and sustained this work. In contrast to other expla-
nations of how to engage in such work, while Craig plays a role, the
other participants have equal status and often emerged as the leaders in
the group. The contribution of this work is the clear documentation and
evidenceitprovidesofthepowerofteacher-ledprofessionaldevelopment.
Bullough and Smith (2016) in a strong review of the research literature
reportedonthevalueandpowerofteacher-ledprofessionaldevelopment
andthisbookprovidesclearevidenceofitspotentialtopromotethekind
of growth and development desired in educational settings. A clear posi-
tionoftheseauthorsisthatallofthemarebecoming(DeleuzeandGuat-
tari1988),beyondthepublicationofthisbooktheywillcontinuetoseek
challenges such as this and the others they describe in this volume.
Just as this book provides clear evidence of the power of teacher-
led and orchestrated professional development, just as importantly it
describes the ways in which collaboration across schools, districts, and
educational levels provides an environment where educators can thrive
andgrow.Thebookrobustlyandrepeatedlymakesthecaseforthepower
ofknowledgecommunities(Craig1995)asaspacewhereunderstandings
about teaching, learning, and schooling can percolate, gain support, and
promote shifts in thinking and action in ways that benefit schools and
allow participants to both contribute to the learning and thrive in the
setting. Craig (2013) cogently argues that all educators desire to create
conditions in which they can become the best-loved selves they imag-
ined themselves as when they became educators. However, the practical
contributionistheaccountsofthesecollaborationsthatprovideguidance
for those who would like to engage in, promote, or create knowledge
communities as places where teachers, institutions, and leaders thrive and
not merely survive. In our view,
…the kind of scholarship most suited to these explorations is intimate
scholarship. While intimate scholarship can be our orientation within
a number of research methodologies, scholarship undertaken from that
perspective shares a number of characteristics. (Hamilton and Pinnegar
2015, p. 39)
